As Frieze week kicks off in London, so does the third Shanzhai Biennial — which does not occur every two years, but instead irregularly, whenever the artistic trio made up of Cyril Duval, Avena Gallagher and Babak Radboy comes together to focus their laser wits on the increasingly porous interstices of art, fashion and branding. Shanzhai Biennial is not an exhibition in any conventional sense of the word, nor is Shanzhai an actual Chinese locale. It’s a term that means “mountain stronghold,” slang for the breed of counterfeit products stockpiled in lofty, hard-to-access villages: name-brand knockoffs that are famous worldwide for their absurd, sometimes even poetic perversions of Western language.
随着弗里兹艺博会(Frieze)在伦敦开幕，第三届山寨双年展(Shanzhai Biennial)也开幕了——其实它并非每两年举办一次，而是不定期举行，届时西里尔·杜瓦尔(Cyril Duval)、阿韦纳·加拉格尔(Avena Gallagher)和巴巴克·拉德博伊(Babak Radboy)这三位艺术家聚到一起，把他们激光般的智慧集中到越来越具有渗透性的艺术、时尚和品牌推广的隙缝中。山寨双年展不是传统字面意义上的展览，山寨也不是一处真的中国山寨。“山寨”指的是存放于高高的、难以到达的村子里的名牌仿制品，它们以对西方语言的荒谬甚至不无诗意的曲解而闻名于世。

Together, the words “Shanzhai Biennial” stand for an apocryphal institution that is often described as an art project posing as a luxury brand — or vice versa. At various times it has functioned as both, though it has consistently eschewed strict identification as either. In London, Shanzhai Biennial No. 3, titled “100 Hamilton Terrace,” consists of two retail installations — one onsite at Frieze Art Fair, another at Project Native Informant gallery in Mayfair — devised as a multipronged real-estate marketing campaign for a £32 million mansion for sale in St. John’s Wood. Both installations are grounded by carpets done in a deep, prosperous red, with floor plans of the property printed in large format directly upon them. The walls are hung with light boxes illuminating advertisements for the house, featuring inquisitive models peering through the outlines of more floor plans. Collateral art objects — limited-edition keys commemorating the house, and haute Frieze Art Fair tote bags that trade standard-issue cotton for quilted black leather and a braided chain — are on view in vitrines. But the most prominent element of the installation, in the Frieze booth anyway, is the mansion’s hefty price tag: a steady stream of zeroes that marches, larger-than-life, across the wall behind the lacquered sales desk.
“山寨”和“双年展”这两个词组合在一起代表一个并不存在的机构，它经常被描述为伪装成奢侈品牌的艺术项目或伪装成艺术项目的奢侈品牌。有时它同时具有这两种职能，虽然它一直不想被严格定义为其中任何一种。伦敦的第三届山寨双年展名为“汉密尔顿露台100号”(100 Hamilton Terrace)，包括两个零售装置作品——一个在弗里兹艺术博览会现场，另一个在梅费尔的本土作品通报画廊(Project Native Informant)。它被设计成一个包括多种元素的房地产营销活动，推销的是圣约翰伍德的一个售价为3200万英镑的宅邸。这两个装置作品都以艳丽的深红色地毯为背景，地毯上印着大幅户型图。墙上挂着灯箱，照亮这所房子的广告，广告中好奇的模特透过更多户型图向外凝视。玻璃橱窗里是一些附属艺术品——纪念这所房子的限量版钥匙，弗里兹艺博会的高档大手提袋，它的材质不是那种普通棉布，而是用中间夹有棉花的黑色皮革做的，还带一条镶饰链子。但是这个装置作品最显眼的元素——在弗里兹艺博会的展位上——是这个宅邸高昂的价签：涂漆销售桌后面的墙上排列着一长串醒目的零。
“We really want to stress that this is real advertising and fake art and not the opposite,” says Radboy. Indeed, the artists stand to earn a bona fide .5-percent commission on the property when it sells. “Advertising has its own formal attributes that are really uncanny when you consider them — but get overlooked because the perspective of critique always treats advertising as some dumb stepchild of culture, easily encapsulated in terms like ‘commodity aesthetics.’”
“我们真的想强调这是真广告，伪艺术，而不是伪装成广告的艺术，”拉德博伊说。的确，如果房子售出，这三位艺术家将获得0.5%的佣金。“如果仔细考虑，你会发现广告具有非常神秘的独特形式属性，但它被忽视了，因为批评家们总是把广告看作文化的愚蠢继子，随意地把它概括为‘商品美学’。”
The project’s centerpiece, though, is artful indeed: a promotional video produced for the address, which makes its premiere here. Scored by a Shanzhai interpretation of Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in Mandarin, which the Biennial originally created for an earlier video shown at MoMA PS1, the advertisement pushes in on domestic scenes from within 100 Hamilton Terrace, juxtaposed with Chinese models stoically enjoying their plush environs. It’s a Kuleshov cocktail of exoticism — evident in both the quintessentially English details of the house and its uncannily posed inhabitants — and globalized, aspirant values.
不过，这个项目的中心作品的确非常艺术化：它是为这座宅邸拍摄的宣传片，在这里首次展示。宣传片的配乐是山寨双年展对西妮德·奥康纳(Sinéad O’Connor)的《没什么能与你相比》(Nothing Compares 2 U)的中文演绎，最初是他们为一个早期视频创作的，曾在现代艺术博物馆(MoMA)PS1馆展示。宣传片在展示汉密尔顿露台100号的室内景致时，融入了中国模特们在其中恬淡享受奢华环境的镜头。它具有库列绍夫(Kuleshov)的电影风格，融合多种异国情调，既有房子典型的英式细节，又有一些姿态怪异的住户，具有雄心勃勃的全球化价值观。
“The fair itself is so evocative of real estate,” Radboy continues. In a tented swath of Regent’s Park, Frieze is cut up into hundreds of contiguous stalls that rent by the day for five-figure sums. Shanzhai Biennial’s booth is in a prime position: the only one along the hallway through which fairgoers enter. “In the end, I think the advertising campaign has more in common with a military campaign: It is first and foremost concerned with territory and not cash.”
“这场艺博会本身很容易让人想起房地产，”拉德博伊继续说道。艺博会位于摄政公园里的一片搭起帐篷的地区，包括成百上千个毗邻摊位，每日租金都是五位数。山寨双年展的展位处于黄金位置，是唯一一个沿过道的展位，参观艺博会的人都得从这儿经过。“说到底，我觉得广告宣传活动与军事战役有很多共同点：它们在乎的是疆域，而非钱。”
“As an agency, we routinely spend tens of thousands of pounds promoting fine homes, yet our advertisements and marketing initiatives often frustratingly create barely a ripple amongst top-end buyers,” explains Aston Chase’s Mark Pollack, the listing agent who convinced his clients to bring Shanzhai Biennial on board to create an abstract take on what is usually resigned to the rote, ineffective methods he describes. Pleased with the parade of millionaires who will be passing by the display all week, the two companies are already talking about future collaborations.
“作为中介机构，我们通常花费数万英镑宣传高端房产，但我们的广告和营销活动常常令人失望，在高端买家中几乎没引起任何反响，”阿斯顿·沙斯房地产中介公司(Aston Chase)的卖方代理人马克·波拉克(Mark Pollack)解释说。他认为普通的宣传方法陈腐无效，劝客户们让山寨双年展加入进来，从抽象视角进行阐释。双方对本周将经过这里的百万富翁感到满意，已在商谈未来的合作。
And what’s next for Shanzhai Biennial? In Chinese culture, the number four is a near-homophone for “death,” so the group plans to skip forward to Shanzhai Biennial No. 5.
山寨双年展的下一个项目是什么？在中国文化中，数字四的发音与“死”接近，所以这个艺术家团体计划把四跳过去，直接举办第五届山寨双年展。